Did you study a foreign language in school? Spanish, French, Italian? Did you enjoy yourself? Or was it an experience that you’d rather forget?
You have to answer these last two questions honestly because they reveal a lot about how you will do the second time around.
There are many people who can’t learn a foreign language in a classroom. I was one of them. I studied French in high school, dropped it in college and then decided to study Spanish once I graduated. No formal teaching, no homework assignments, no calls home for bad grades.
Now I’m a Spanish teacher, married to a Spaniard and raising our children bilingually. And it all happened outside the class.
If you’re one of these people and have no desire to return to the classroom, then you have to make the most of your studies on your own.
It’s not easy at first. Studying a foreign language requires discipline and an awareness of important tips and tricks that can reduce the frustration and disappointment.
Here are three that are at the top of my list:
1) Understand how to learn – This may seem like a simple point but it’s worth its wait in gold. Understand that things take time. Patience is probably more valuable than your conjugations.
Too many people quit studying foreign languages after becoming discouraged with their progress. If you feel that you should progress everyday, you’re mistaken. If you feel you should make great strides each week, you’re mistaken.
You will learn slowly but surely at first and then there will come a point when you’re learning will accelerate. No one knows when. Just be patient and know that good things are happening in the depths of your brain.
2) A little studying each day is better than a lot of studying for a few days. – This is self-explanatory. You are much better off putting in 5 minutes a day when you really don’t feel like it than waiting a week and then studying for 2 hours.
The 5 minutes everyday can be anything you like. You could listen to a song in the foreign language, read the comics in the language, learn curse words in the language. As long as you’re connecting with the language in some way, you will benefit.
3) Find many ways to study. – By this I mean, listening one day, reading another, and so on. The trick to studying a foreign language on your own is to have many ways to both learn and entertain yourself. This way, you’ll always have at least one thing you can do each day to keep your momentum going.
If you know your learning style then do the majority of your learning using that style. After all, it’s the one that comes naturally to you.
In closing, knowing how to study a foreign language on your own is the most difficult part of the adventure. Discipline and desire are needed throughout. If you think you have what it takes, get to it. I did and I’m as fluent as can be. And loving it!
Posts Tagged ‘Conjugations’
3 Tips For Learning A Foreign Language At Home
January 5th, 2010Why is Spanish Such a Hard Language to Learn
December 23rd, 2009Spanish is like any other languages apart from the few special facts about the language which makes it identical like other languages. Spanish language is not particularly a hard language to learn, it has it’s set of difficulties which is faced to learn any new language. English is actually more difficult to learn than Spanish. Spanish and English have many words in common and some even sound similar, so it’s very easy for an English speaking person to learn it.
It’s just that it’s more difficult for an adult to learn a foreign language than a child. Our schools really should teach it throughout a person’s school years. Some very smart people have trouble learning a foreign language, while some of lower intelligence do extremely well.
Languages other than Spanish like English which is a Germanic language, however German isn’t especially easy for English speakers to master because there are so many different conjugations. Even more than in Spanish. Chinese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn because the structure is completely different. In English we spell things phonetically using a 26 character alphabet. Chinese uses thousands of characters, and is not phonetic. Spanish isn’t that hard to learn if you have a basis in Latin or some other of the Romance languages like French or Italian.
Sometimes you can get another language because of it’s similarities to one you already speak for example if you’re German you might have a good chance of learning English as English has it’s roots in German.
One basic problem faced by people in learning Spanish is not the writing skills which is easy to attain the Spanish grammar being easy but conversational skills is tough in Spanish because of it’s vast vocabulary and accent. One thing to remember about the Spanish language, is that not all Spanish speakers use the same accent. I originally learned Latin-American
Spanish, and one of my teachers spoke with the Castilian accent. I could not understand much of what she said. The grammar is very close to English grammar and the words are usually written phonetically. It shares a large common ground with English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German. . . etc. so it’s easy to learn for people of Latin/Germanic language descent.
The easiest way to learn a language is to study a short time every day, as opposed to a long time every once in a while.
There was a time when the capability of learning a new language was completely based on the person’s genetic ability.
Things have changed drastically with technology, now it is possible to learn and adapt a new language like Spanish in 3-4 months . I have listed few habits that you can develop to learn Spanish quickly , Watch the news in Spanish. This is a good exercise because you will always have a context. Watch the film as you listen to the story. You can read the subtitles and
listen at the same time. When you hear people speaking in Spanish try to understand what they are saying to each other.
. Be fearless. When you are in a setting in which you can use your Spanish just do it. Most Spanish-speakers are glad to help and happy you are trying. In order to learn and master the language, you will need to practice and immerse yourself in the language and understand the culture.
